I uploaded "Modernity" : the 2nd Volume of the series "From Modernity to After-Modernity"

The second volume of the series "From Modernity to After-Modernity" just got published in e-book form and is available from my website. The 1st edition totals 1,022 pages.

The complete series will total 5 volumes :

Volume 0 :  From Modernity to After-Modernity      (100 pages Synthesis)
Volume 1 : The continuum of the cultural field
Volume 2 : Modernity
Volume 3 : The societal formation of knowledge
Volume 4 : The essence of the arts is societal and not individual
Volume 5 : Societal evolution

Visual arts served different functions throughout history

I'm in the final editing of the volume 2, of my series, titled "Modernity" ... and can't resist sharing this short passage about the different functions visual arts have assumed under the different models of society that succeeded each other along the path of societal evolution. 
 

Bear in mind that the volume 4 of this series will focus exclusively on the arts so my touching on this subject in the volume "Modernity" is necessarily sketchy... 

 

Art versus propaganda

The difference between propaganda and art resides in the function of their signs.

The first is at the service of individualism while the latter serves the community (1) : 

 

Digital variations : Wall 205 is online

The complete gallery of 256 digital variations that compose wall 205 is online.

Here under are a few samples from this collection. The size of each of these variations is 60 x 90 cm and the complete wall is 9.6 x 14.4 meters. 

 Click on the images to get a larger size at 1200 x 800 px. 

Digital variations : Wall 204 is online

The complete gallery of 256 digital variations composing wall 204 is online.

Here under are a few samples from this collection. The size of each of these variations is 60 x 90 cm and the complete wall is 9.6 x 14.4 meters. Click on the images to get a larger size at 1200 x 800 px. 

 

 

Digital variations : Wall 203 is online

The complete gallery of 256 digital variations composing wall 203 is online.

Here under are a few samples from this collection. 

The size of each of these variations is 60 x 90 cm and the complete wall is 9.6 x 14.4 meters. 

Click on the images to get their full size.

First devastating societal blow in Late-Modernity (12)

5.  A gradual shift from a Western to an Eastern model of society

5.2.5. the rise of the Asian model of governance

Regional Economic Blocks have a decisive governance advantage over the present world institutions. For one they group neighboring countries that have privileged and often long-standing inter-relations. Secondly they are not burdened by the weight of bureaucracy and corruption that characterize present day International Institutions. Thirdly these regional blocs are not torn apart by the ideological divisions between the declining power and the upcoming power.

A painting from 1515 turns a mirror on its Western viewers

Hell Is for White People.

"A painting from 1515 turns a mirror on its viewers" in Cabinet Magazine by Alexander Nagel.

Nagel's commentary is well worth the 5 minutes necessary to read it. Here is how Rumple describes Nagels' commentary on Metafilter :

The 4th batch of 256 paintings of wall 202 are online

Pushing the envelope to 19.2 x 28.8 meters ...  (continuum of 1024 digital paintings). 

This 4th batch represents the 4th quarter of the wall (D) and represents 256 paintings...  

The print size of each digital painting is 60 x 90 cm and the complete gallery of this 4th quarter of wall 2-02 is now online (Gallery D = 256 paintings).

Here under are a few samples from this collection of 256 digital paintings.

The 3rd batch of 256 paintings of wall 202 are online

Pushing the envelope to 19.2 x 28.8 meters ...  (continuum of 1024 digital paintings). 

The third batch represents the 3rd quarter of the wall and represents 256 paintings...  The print size of each digital painting is 60 x 90 cm.

The complete gallery of this second quarter of wall 2-02 is online (Gallery C = 256 paintings).

Here under are a few samples from this collection of 256 digital paintings.

The 2nd batch of 256 paintings of wall 202 are online

Pushing the envelope to 19.2 x 28.8 meters ...  (continuum of 1024 digital paintings). 

This second batch represents the second quarter of 256 paintings...  The print size of each digital painting is 60 x 90 cm.

The complete gallery of this second quarter of wall 2-02 is online (Gallery B = 256 paintings).

Here under are a few samples from this collection of 256 digital paintings.

The first 256 paintings of wall 202 are online

Since Beijing is still at a standstill, due to the coronavirus spreading from Wuhan, I initiated a new series of digital variations from painting 2-02 of the grand project.

Once terminated this new wall will total 1024 digital paintings that will be available as limited edition prints sized each at 60 x 90 cm.

The complete gallery of the first quarter (A = 256 paintings) of wall 2-02 is online.

Here under are a few samples from this collection of 256 digital paintings.

Wall 201 is online

I took the opportunity of Beijing's standstill, due to the coronavirus spreading from Wuhan, to terminate a new series of digital variations,

The complete gallery of wall 2-01 is online.

Here under are a few samples from this collection of 256 digital paintings.

Wall 104 is online

Oil painting 1-04. Size 60 x 90 cm.

The complete gallery, of all 256 digital variations of painting 1-04 from "the grand project"  is finally online.

Digital transformations wall 104. (02).

Some new transformations of original painting 1-04 from the Grand Project.

Digital transformations wall 104

Some new digital transformations

1. First some links to necessary technical information:

• what is the "Grand Project" ?
• differences between digital transformations and algorithmic painting
• how does organic art measure up in artistic evoluttion
• galleries to Digital Transformations Walls 101, 102, 103

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First 2 paintings from the 104 series

I started the digital transformations of painting 1-04 of the "grand project". This series will total 256 digital paintings and they are forming a continuum as you can see on Digital transformations 1 +  2. When this series is terminated the wall of 256 paintings will have a size of  9.6 x 14.4 meters. The original oil painting as well as the prints of each digital transformation have a size of 60 x 90 cm.

Click on images to blow up to your screen width.

 _________

What is going on ? The book.

 

 

1. Book

 

 

I just published "What is going on ?" in book form (302 pages). Click here for a free download.

This is a first version customization in book form of my series of 14 posts going by the same title.  

After letting the book settle for a while I'll eventually further edit the text.

In the meantime I would be grateful to anyone for any suggestions or critiques. Please use the comment section or the mail-form.

________________

What’s going on here? (12)

7. Finding meaning in life

 

This post addresses the following:

7.1.  on the emergence of societal evolution and art

7.2.   about the mind and thinking

7.3.   about truthfulness: the mind and society

______________ 

Organic art = the patterns of life (7)

6.   organic art as answer in the context of Late-Modernity

The concepts ‘beauty’ and ‘ugliness’ are abstract derivations by the mind of a physical awareness that originates in the brain. An awareness of something the brain inherited from biological evolution.

Our brain stores information and uses some of it to take its decisions concerning our integrity and survival. Along their societal evolutionary path humans became aware, in their minds, of a very little portion of this information. It made us aware of ourselves and of our near environment. This set in motion a process of knowledge formation that initiated the rise of societal evolution.

Art emerged as a tool of societal evolution to share knowledge with all and ensure societal reproduction. But by Late-Modernity art, in Western societies, had reached a stage of nothingness. In their search for sense some artists discovered that the fundamentals of the principle of life wash away the arbitrariness of ideologies... and organic art slowly emerged out of the nightmare of Late-Modernity.